Tribute to Gromic

from Carsten Weiss, the director of the International ComedyArts festival,
when delivering the ComedyArts Advancement Award for Particularly Innovative Performances.

«The tradition of the visual arts is a big one, even beyond artistry and acrobatics. Just think of the fantastic artists from the fields of clowning and mime who have been here in Moers over the 47-year history of the International ComedyArts Festival.

Visual comedy is a form of humor at the highest level. Wordlessly, reduced to facial expressions, gestures, body language and a few props, the aim is to tell stories, create situations or create scenery.

Here and now we want to honor a true master of this discipline. His minimalism leads to extraordinary things, he creates the maximum with his sense of simplicity. Finally in this simplification we find his great quality, which is concrete in every moment. That’s the way his seemingly unspectacular performances become spectacular.

This artist also means innovation that can be experienced in a literal sense, because his comedy does not only reach people of all generations, but also every audience, no matter how heterogeneous: the skeptics, the dreamers, the reserved, the expectant – he inspires them all in a playful way and works completely without artistic compromises or provocative border crossings.

He is an enrichment for the 47th International ComedyArts Festival Moers and for the entire art of humor. In an incomparable way, in a comedy way, he gives joy, warms hearts and puts a smile on every face.

The ComedyArts sponsorship award for particularly innovative performances, awarded by the Neue Ruhr Zeitung, goes to: Gromic!»

Moers, September 2023

Carsten Weiss Artistic Director ComedyArts